On Health Care, Repeal or Reform Lead to Same Result

Heading
into the 2014 elections, some Democrats think they have found a way to
minimize the political fallout from the president's health care law.
They have convinced themselves that voters are more interested in fixing
the law rather than repealing it. A few even believe that Obamacare may
someday be popular with voters.

Rhetorically, they may be right (if a bit overoptimistic) in the narrow setting of midterm elections.

It is certainly true that a Democrat calling for mending the health
care law rather than ending it will fare better than one who
enthusiastically supports the status quo. In some states and districts,
the mend-don't-end approach will be more appealing than the
repeal-and-replace rhetoric coming from the Republican Party.

Substantively, however, a Democratic campaign based upon fixing the
health care law is a white flag of surrender acknowledging that
Obamacare will never go into effect the way the president dreamed.

Other
than rhetoric, there is little difference between GOP calls for repeal
and the kind of fix that would make the law popular and workable.

The key is the individual mandate.

It's the most unpopular part of the law mainly because most Americans
instinctively feel that there's something wrong with the government
forcing citizens to buy something. That's especially true when they're
forced to buy from a large insurance company that helped write the
rules.

Defenders of the law prefer to call it an "individual shared
responsibility payment." In their framing, it's not so much a mandate as
a way of treating your neighbors fairly. The thinking goes that if
someone without insurance gets in an accident or is diagnosed with
cancer, the rest of us get stuck with the tab.

That sounds pretty reasonable. Being responsible for paying your bills
is all-American and something to be encouraged. If that were what the
law actually did, it wouldn't be so hated.

Unfortunately, instead of sticking to that basic concept, the president
mandated all kinds of things beyond what is necessary to protect
society from irresponsible neighbors. For example, it's a bit bizarre to
force people without children to pay for pediatric care insurance.
Those add-ons to the mandate limit personal choice and dramatically
drive up the cost of insurance.

It is on this point that the difference between mending and ending the health care law fades away.

The law will never become popular and workable until the individual
mandate is fixed or repealed.

Fixing it would mean stripping away all
the add-on requirements in the current law. A minimal mandate, requiring
purchase only of an inexpensive catastrophic care plan, would protect
society at large but give individuals many more options.

The problem for President Barack Obama, however, is what will happen
after the mandate is fixed.

Essentially, it would remove both insurance
companies and the government from the driver's seat to put consumers in
charge. As consumers exercised their power, it would spur innovation in
the health care field and undermine the top-down control at the core of
Obamacare.

That's the dilemma facing the Democrats. To survive the election, they
will call for fixing the health care law rather than repealing it. After
the election, they will have to deal with the reality that there is
little difference between fixing and repealing. Substantively, mending
Obamacare will end it.

Obama to tap Julian Castro for housing secretary

AP News

CHICAGO
(AP) — President Barack Obama is preparing to boost the profile of an
up-and-coming young Hispanic Democrat by nominating San Antonio Mayor
Julian Castro to become the nation's housing secretary. Obama's current
housing chief gets a new title: budget director.

Obama was
expected to announce his latest Cabinet shuffle at the White House on
Friday afternoon, a White House official said, shortly after he returns
from an overnight trip to his Chicago hometown to raise money for Senate
Democratic candidates.

He was to be joined by Castro and Shaun
Donovan, currently secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban
Development. Both men are close to the president and their profiles
would receive a significant boost from moving into the higher-profile
positions. The White House official who disclosed the nominations would
speak only on condition of anonymity before a pending personnel
announcement by Obama.

Obama chose Castro to deliver the keynote
address at the 2012 Democratic National Convention and his star has been
rising ever since. The two men's life stories are similar: Both are
minorities raised by single mothers, they hold Harvard law degrees and
saw their political careers skyrocket after giving lauded Democratic
convention keynote speeches.

Castro, 39, is often among those
being talked about as possible Democratic vice presidential candidates
in 2016. If confirmed by the Senate, the three-term mayor would become
one of the highest-ranking Hispanic officials serving at the pleasure of
the president.

Donovan, 48, is highly regarded inside the White
House as a strong manager. He is a lifelong affordable housing advocate
whose work overseeing the federal government's response to the
destruction Hurricane Sandy unleashed on the East Coast in October 2012
has earned glowing praise from White House officials, including Obama.

As
director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, currently a
Cabinet-level post, Donovan would have influence over administration
policy and spending. He would be expected to win Senate confirmation a
second time for the new post.

Donovan would replace Sylvia Mathews
Burwell. Obama recently nominated Burwell to become secretary of health
and human services following the resignation of Kathleen Sebelius after
the disastrous rollout of the federal website for consumers to buy
insurance coverage under Obama's health care law.

Obama had sought
to bring Castro into the administration in the past, but he decided to
stay in the job he says he looked forward to while growing up. Castro
handily won a third term as mayor last year.
But his ambitions
apparently have grown along with his stock as a politician with broad
appeal to Democratic voters, including fellow Hispanics who voted
overwhelmingly for Obama in 2012. Castro is Mexican-American.

Serving in Obama's Cabinet would give Castro a national platform to continue building his reputation.

Javier
Palomarez, president and chief executive officer of the U.S. Hispanic
Chamber of Commerce, said Castro is a "visionary leader" who has done
more than anyone in San Antonio to address the city's housing needs.

"Mayor
Castro is not only an exemplary leader within the Hispanic community,
but by all measure, a well-suited candidate to lead the department,"
Palomarez said. "With great consistency, Mayor Castro has set aside
political partisanship in the name of good policy decision making. We
hope his confirmation process will proceed with that same collaborative
spirit."

How America Treats Illegal Aliens vs. Veterans

A government that fails to secure its borders is guilty of
dereliction of duty. A government that fails to care for our men and
women on the frontlines is guilty of malpractice. A government that puts
the needs of illegal aliens above U.S. veterans for political gain
should be prosecuted for criminal neglect bordering on treason.
Compare, contrast and weep:

In Sacramento, Calif., lawmakers are moving forward with a
budget-busting plan to extend government-funded health insurance to at
least 1.5 million illegal aliens.

In Los Angeles, federal bureaucrats callously canceled an estimated
40,000 diagnostic tests and treatments for American veterans with cancer
and other illnesses to cover up a decade-long backlog.

In New York, doctors report that nearly 40 percent of their patients
receiving kidney dialysis are illegal aliens. A survey of nephrologists
in 44 states revealed that 65 percent of them treat illegal aliens with
kidney disease.

In Memphis, a VA whistleblower reported that his hospital was using
contaminated kidney dialysis machines to treat America's warriors. The
same hospital previously had been investigated for chronic overcrowding
at its emergency room, leading to six-hour waits or longer. Another
watchdog probe found unconscionable delays in processing lab tests at
the center. In addition, three patients died under negligent
circumstances, and the hospital failed to enforce accountability
measures.

In Phoenix, at least 40 veterans died waiting for VA hospitals and
clinics to treat them, while government officials created secret waiting
lists to cook the books and deceive the public about deadly treatment
delays.

At the University of California at Berkeley, UC President Janet
Napolitano (former secretary of the Department of Homeland Security) has
offered $5 million in financial aid to illegal alien students.

Across
the country, 16 states offer in-state tuition discounts for illegal
aliens: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland,
Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon,
Texas, Utah and Washington. In addition, the Rhode Island Board of
Governors for Higher Education, the University of Hawaii Board of
Regents and the University of Michigan Board of Regents all approved
their own illegal alien tuition benefits.

In 2013, the nation's most selective colleges and universities had
enrolled just 168 American veterans, down from 232 in 2011. Anti-war
activists have waged war on military recruitment offices at elite
campuses for years. The huge influx of illegal aliens in state
universities is shrinking the number of state-subsidized slots for vets.

In 2013, the Obama Department of Homeland Security released 36,007
known, convicted criminal illegal aliens, according to the Center for
Immigration Studies. The catch-and-release beneficiaries include thugs
convicted of homicide, sexual assault, kidnapping, and thousands of
drunk or drugged driving crimes.

The same Department of Homeland Security issued a report in 2009 that
identified returning combat veterans as worrisome terrorist and criminal
threats to America.

In Washington, Big Business and open-borders lobbyists are redoubling
efforts to pass another massive illegal alien amnesty to flood the U.S.
job market with low-wage labor.

Across the country, men and women in uniform returning home from Iraq
and Afghanistan have higher jobless rates than the civilian population.
The unemployment rate for new veterans has spiked to its worst levels,
nearing 15 percent. For veterans ages 24 and under, the jobless rate is a
whopping 29.1 percent, compared to 17.6 percent nationally for the age
group.

A Forbes columnist reported last year that an Air Force veteran was told: "We don't hire your kind."

And last December, Democrats led the charge to reduce cost-of-living
increases in military pensions -- while blocking GOP Alabama Sen. Jeff
Sessions' efforts to close a $4.2 billion loophole that allows illegal
aliens to collect child tax credits from the IRS, even if they pay no
taxes. The fraudulent payments to illegal aliens would have offset the
cuts to veterans' benefits.

America: medical and welfare welcome mat to the rest of the world,
while leavings its best and bravest veterans to languish in hospital
lounges, die waiting for appointments, and compete for jobs and
educational opportunities against illegal border-crossers, document
fakers, visa violators and deportation evaders. Shame on us.

“A
still-classified State Department e-mail says that one of the first
responses from the White House to the Benghazi attack was to contact
YouTube to warn of the ‘ramifications’ of allowing the posting of an
anti-Islamic video.” The White House says this confirms their version of
events, but Issa says: “The e-mail shows the White House had hurried to
settle on a false narrative.” Indeed.

There are thousands of videos on
YouTube criticizing Islam in whole or part. The idea that this one
touched off the Benghazi jihad attack, or was singular in any way, is
ridiculous on its face.

A still-classified State Department e-mail says that one
of the first responses from the White House to the Benghazi attack was
to contact YouTube to warn of the “ramifications” of allowing the
posting of an anti-Islamic video, according to Rep. Darrell Issa, the Republican chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

The memo suggests that even as the attack was still underway — and
before the CIA began the process of compiling talking points on its
analysis of what happened — the White House believed it was in
retaliation for a controversial video.

…or wanted the world to believe that that was what was happening.

The subject line of the e-mail, which was sent at 9:11
p.m. Eastern Time on the night of the attack, is “Update on Response to
actions – Libya.” The e-mail was written hours before the attack was
over.

Issa has asked the White House to declassify and release the
document. In the meantime he has inserted a sentence from the e-mail in
the Congressional Record.

“White House is reaching out to U-Tube [sic] to advice ramification
of the posting of the Pastor Jon video,” the e-mail reads, according to
Issa.

Asked about the document, a senior White House official told ABC News
it demonstrates that the White House genuinely believed the video
sparked the attack all along, a belief that turned out to be incorrect.

“We actually think this proves what we’ve said. We were concerned
about the video, given all the protests in region,” the official said.
And the intelligence community “was also concerned about the video.”

Issa has an entirely different view. He contends the document
contradicts the White House assertion that it was the CIA who first
pinned blame for the attack on protests in response to the anti-Islamic
video.

“The e-mail shows the White House had hurried to settle on a false narrative
— one at odds with the conclusions reached by those on the ground —
before Americans were even out of harm’s way or the intelligence
community had made an impartial examination of available evidence,” Issa
said….

Obama no longer considers al-Qaeda a direct threat to America. Intelligence community stunned.

Bare Naked Islam

Tensions between the White House and top military and intelligence officials have never been greater.

The Daily BeastIn
interviews with many of them, a common theme is sounded: The threat
from al Qaeda is rising, but the White House is looking to ratchet down
the war against these Islamic extremists. As a result, intelligence
gathered on these threats remain shrouded from the public and, in many
cases, from senior government officials. And now Congress and the White
House are beginning to consider modifying—and possibly revoking—the very
authority to find, fix and finish those terrorists who pose the threat
today.

One senior U.S. intelligence official
said the frustration was that there is pressure from the White House to
downplay the threat from some al Qaeda affiliates. “It comes from the
top, it’s the message that al Qaeda is all these small franchise groups
and they are not coordinated and threatening,” this official said. “It’s
the whole idea of getting us out to place resources against something
that they don’t think is a problem. It’s not their war, it’s not our
conflict.”

Al Qaeda chief says, “We need to kidnap more Americans”

But some senior U.S. intelligence
officials, like Defense Intelligence Agency Director Gen. Michael Flynn,
fought hard against that assessment, which amounted to an official
pronouncement of the American intelligence community’s collected wisdom.
Flynn and his faction won a partial victory, striking the judgment that
the terrorist group no longer posed a threat to the homeland. “Flynn
and others at the time made it clear they would not go along with that
kind of assessment,” one U.S. intelligence officer who worked on the al
Qaeda file told The Daily Beast. “It was basically: ‘Over my dead
body.’”

One reason why CIA officers were so
quick to conclude the Benghazi attack was an act of terrorism (not a
response to a video) was because some of the fighters who participated
in the attack were being watched by CIA officers at the time on the
ground in Libya, according to U.S. intelligence officials and
congressional investigators.

Documents taken from Osama bin Laden’s
Pakistani lair showed that the Nigerian terror group Boko Haram, now
infamous for its mass kidnappings, was tied to al Qaeda’s leader.

Even Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the
Democratic chairwoman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence,
told CNN on Sunday, “Terror is not down in the world. It is up, both
deaths, injuries, in many, many different places. Al Qaeda has
metastasized.

“There is a desire for peace and I
understand that. Everyone admits theoretically that the enemy gets a
vote. But the war is not over till the enemy says it’s over,” James
Mattis, who served as Obama’s commander of Central Command between 2010
and 2013, until he was fired by Obama.

CNN reports
that a series of al Qaeda-based threats to attack American and Western
targets in Europe, as well as threats to launch attacks inside the
United States, has caused significant concern inside the U.S.
intelligence community. Officials are trying to determine the extent to
which the threats may be linked and determine what it may mean about the
strength of al Qaeda in several countries.

Before he had to rush off to pack for yesterdays round of photo-op
nonsense, and coming almost a month after the story broke, Barack
HUSSEIN Obama spoke on Wednesday for 45 minutes about the VA scandal
that is casting yet another shadow of incompetency over his presidency.
Holding NO one responsible for this most grievous of sins against our
veterans, Obama put on his best 'sad face' for the cameras while
claiming he will work with VA Secretary Eric Shinseki to address
allegations that VA officials falsifying wait-time records for veterans
seeking services.

Continuing to defend Shinseki's handling of the allegations to date,
Obama said he would wait for the results of several reviews before
deciding Shinseki's fate...the classic Obama do NOTHING stance.

Apparently the treatment of our veterans constitutes NO sense of
urgency for this president as the 'blame everyone but himself' game revs up to full
speed. Even saying, "When I heard allegations of misconduct -
any misconduct, whether it's allegations of VA staff covering up long
wait times or cooking the books - I will not stand for it, not as
commander in chief, but also not as an American," Obama is just saying what he was told to say and he means NOT a word of it.

"...I will NOT stand for it..." coming from the mouth
of this man are hypocritical words as they do NOTHING to quell this rightfully growing
controversy with its demand for answers. In fact, when NO definitive
plan of action to hold those responsible is laid out with those words,
those words just become more useless bloviations by the man who is
anything but an honorable Commander-in-Chief. But then again how does
one take action against one's self for Barack HUSSEIN Obama new damn
well from before he was sworn in that there were problems at the VA, and
in the almost six years since then has done NOTHING to remedy the
ever-expanding situation...NO...the ever-expanding crisis is a better
choice of words.

A crisis that has been in the making ever since Barack HUSSEIN Obama
and Eric Shinseki took over the VA system, yet neither will take
responsibility for its problems or or their lack of action. Together they're passing the buck...the
hallmark of this administration...as the backlog they've known about
since 2008 has increased ten-fold on their watch, and now veterans...our
brave warriors...are dying while languishing for months on secret
lists. America does NOT need another yet another investigation...whose
conclusions we know before it even begins...to tell us that VA is
failing in properly treating our veterans. We need answers and
solutions...we need those responsible put in the hot seat and called
to task...and we need assurances that all will be made right for those
who have put their lives on the line to keep us safe and free at home.

But from this president...from this administration...I'm NOT
holding my breath for that as Barack HUSSEIN Obama has now made even the
treatment our veterans receive...or should I say lack of treatment...into a political dog and pony show of the first degree. Festering below
the surface for weeks now as the VA scrambles to cover-up the
inexcusable, Obama has the unmitigated gall to publicly say on national
television that NO conclusions could or would be drawn until
investigations were complete. Shades of Benghazi and the IRS and NSA
scandals all rolled into one as he just laid the ground floor for this,
yet another investigation, to drag on...possibly for years...while our
veterans continue to die.

Are you angry yet folks as this is just the beginning of a nightmare
ride with the markings of 'divert and deflect' written all over it for as our
ailing military heroes are dying their Commander-in-Chief still will NOT
call anyone to task for fear all roads will lead back to him.

“If these allegations prove to be true it is dishonorable, it is
disgraceful, and I will not tolerate it, period,” Obama's Wednesday
bloviations continued on. But note the word 'if'...as in "if these
allegations prove to be true," but how can they NOT be true as story
after story is surfacing as more and more spouses of vets who died waiting for treatment are telling their stories on national TV...as emails
and documents have already come to light exposing the horror that this
man and his administration knowingly turned a blind eye to.

"We have to let the investigators do their job and get to the bottom
of what happened. Our veterans deserve to know the facts. Their
families deserve to know the facts. Once we know the facts, I assure you
if there is misconduct, it will be punished," Obama also said while he
fights for more time to concoct a cover-up story to save his own skin. And
sadly we know the media will give him that time for they too knew all
the wrongdoings going on yet also remained silent for fear of further
tarnishing their own creation...their self-anointed supposed 'black savior of us all.'

And so as the nightmare that began in one VA hospital in Phoenix,
Arizona, now spreads to 26 VA facilities across this country...with more
sure to come...as the practice and documenting of false reporting...of
out-and-out lying...seems to bear out a truth that needed to be kept hidden...that records have been manipulated solely for appearance
sake as they tie directly into earning performance bonuses for hospital
administrators and staff...as the almighty dollar takes precedence over
the lives of our vets.

And Obama knowing about these problems since the days of his
transition team means the question of why has this been overlooked for
so long has but one answer...an answer some of us have NOT been afraid
to say...and that is that Barack HUSSEIN Obama cares NOTHING for our
veterans, our troops, or our military in general...for there is NO sense
of urgency coming from him in righting this grievous wrong. And now
just like he did immediately after Benghazi, Barack HUSSEIN Obama jets
off yet again for fundraisers and photo-ops leaving behind 100 dead
veterans and a VA system fundamentally broken to its core in his wake.

Yet another indelible stain on his record...yet another reason for
his removal from office...yet another circling of the wagons around the
most miserable excuse of a president our nation has ever known... and all
as our veterans continue to die.

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The Patriot Factor

I am an American Patriot...part of the grassroots movement of bloggers spreading the truth the media will not. I am also co-host with Craig Andresen of RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS on RSP Radio at: https://streamingv2.shoutcast.com/right-side-patriots